Improvement in horseshoes



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..

ALBERT S. WILKINSON, OF PAWTUCKET, RHODE ISLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN HORSESHOES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 56,4175, dated July 17, 1866.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT S. WILKIN- SON, of Pawtucket, Providence county, State of Rhode Island, have invented a new and Improved Webbed Horseshoe; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, which will enable others skilled in the art to make and use the Sallie, reference beinghad to the accompanying drawings, forming part of this specification, in which- Figure l is a top view of my improved shoe for animals. Fig. 2 is a section of the same taken in the line fr; a', Fig. l.

Similar letters of reference in the different figures indicate corresponding parts.

[t is desirable that the plate of horseshoes shall always be as wide as circumstances will allow, sov that`the foot ot' the animal may be betrer protected from bruises; but if shoes of ordinary construction are made wider than usual they become heavy and cumbersome, and the beneiit derived from the wide shoe of such construction is counterbalanced by the objection of increased weight.

The object of my invention is to provide a shoe which shall have both the qualities of lightness and increased width for protecting the sole of the foot; and this I accomplish by cutting out a thin plate of steel orother meta-l and attaching it to the shoe in such manner as to practically extend the shoe inward,so as to cover or more fully cover the sole of the foot and shield the same from shocks and blows without materially increasing the weight of the shoe, and, further, afford inV creased facilities for treating and curing cer tain ailments which the feet of animals are subject to, as hereinafter fully described.

Having described the nature of my invention, I will proceed to describe its constructio and operation.

A is a shoe-plate, which is constructed in two parts, a c', Fig. 2, with a thin steel plate ormetallic web, B, riveted in between them and extending beyond the slice-plates A iuward toward the center of the foot. The metallic web is cut out (more or less) in the center, as shown by Fig. l.

The web or shield B may be stamped out in a dishing form, and then riveted to the top of the shoe with the convexity of the dish downward, and this mode allows the web to be applied to ordinary single-plate shoes; but in shoes formed of two plates or bars I prefer to rivet the web in between the same as shown.

The corner b, Fig. l, of the web shows how the place of corns may be entirely protected thereby. The other heel or corner, b', is slightly turned up to form a cup for holding a wet sponge or any pledget or medicament where a corn has already been made and is under treatment, and for preventing the entrance of sand or mud to the sore.

At the toe the web B is turned up, as shown by b2, to facilitate treatment of the disease known as pumiced foot 7 or dropping of the comu-bone.77

When, from disease and consequent weakness, the machinery that holds up the coffinbone fails in its proper functional performance, the bone must drop down upon the sole of the foot, and it takes but little afterward to drive it down through the sole, andthe animal is ruined.

Vhen the premonitory symptoms of this disease appear I put a rubber or other soft cushion onto the web at b2, as a support for the toe ofthe cofu-bone to rest upon, and the bone cannot then drop any farther. All strain being thus taken oit the inamed and weakened parts above that hold the coffin-bone, they are given a chance to recover before it is too late. The back sinews, having this help at the toe and being relieved of much eXtra work, are enabled to perform their own proper and natural functions more efficiently and healthfully, and thus keep the toe ot' the cofn-bone pushed forward to its natural position.

The web in such cases would also be highly useful in treating diseases of the foot.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

The combination of the shoe A and web B, having its inner edges curved in the manner and for the purpose set forth.

ALBERT S. WILKINSON.

Witnesses:

W. W. BLODGETT, WILLIAM W. REND. 

